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There’s no excuse for a pay increase for Toronto police: Editorial

A Sunshine List revealing that most Toronto police now earn more than $100,000 should produce some moderation in bargaining with the police union.

Toronto police watch demonstrators march along Front St. to protest the federal government's proposed anti-terrorism bill on March 14, 2015. Ontario's Sunshine List reveals that a large number of officers now earn more than $100,000. (Vince Talotta / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Wed., March 18, 2015

With most Toronto police earning more than $100,000 — including an enterprising constable collecting enough to number among society’s “one per cent” — this much stands clear: these people are paid more than enough.

In fairness to local residents who are stuck with the bill, that reality should colour ongoing contract talks between the Toronto Police Service and the union representing uniformed officers and civilian employees.

There’s no denying that the Toronto Police Association has done extremely well in recent years. Taxpayers have been remarkably generous to its members. Officers received an 11.4-per-cent raise through a four-year deal that expired on Dec. 31. And, before that, they enjoyed a 10-per-cent pay hike courtesy of a three-year contract.

The result: a 21-per-cent windfall in just the past seven years. Few employers in this country — or anywhere else — have been so open-handed.

That’s one factor in why most police employees were found to collect more than $100,000 last year. The other is that the Toronto Police Services Board, for the first time, also counted money earned through “paid duty” done in officers’ off-hours. What emerged is a portrait of an exceedingly well-compensated labour force.

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The base salary for a first-class constable is now well over $90,000 and it doesn’t take much extra income, either through overtime or paid duty, to push gross earnings into the six figures.

As reported by the Star’s Betsy Powell, the champion money-maker last year was Const. Abdulhameed Virani, who earned $244,000 mostly through overtime and paid duty. Only Chief Bill Blair garnered more, with a salary of $349,000.

Union president Mike McCormack was quick to accuse the board of attempting to “muddy the waters” on police incomes by including paid duty when compiling a so-called “Sunshine List” of staff making over $100,000. He noted that money earned in an officer’s off-hours — escorting funerals and standing guard at construction sites and public events — results from voluntary work and is mainly funded by the private sector, not by taxpayers.

But McCormack misses the point. Access to paid duty is a perk available to no one but uniformed police. It goes with the job, and it’s extremely lucrative. Participating officers earn $68 an hour, with a guaranteed minimum of three hours pay. That adds up to at least $204 for every outing.

Officers taking part in this cops-for-hire program, on average, enriched their base salary with an extra $8,900 last year. There’s every reason to include such revenue in accurately assessing what police officers earn through the job they’ve been given.

The police board has asked Blair to “undertake a thorough review” of paid duty, and to find out why so many staff are collecting so much above and beyond their salary. That’s a welcome directive resulting from the latest Sunshine List disclosure.

But the newly released list would be even more useful if it generated some moderation in collective bargaining. Further police pay hikes simply aren’t justified. Any wage increase at all should come only in exchange for dropping some of the egregious perks currently enjoyed by police, such as an absurdly generous system allowing the banking of up to18 sick days a year, to be cashed out later for many thousands of dollars. Restraint is in order.

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